(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital telephone offices and more particularly to a satellite digital telephone office connected to a base unit (e.g. class 5) digital telephone office. The satellite office operates to provide minimal features for local switching independent of the class 5 office and by communication with the base unit office the satellite office can provide the full range of customer features associated with a class 5 office.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In order to provide telephone subscribers with the full range of class 5 customer features they traditionally had to be connected to a full capability class 5 telephone office. Due to cost limitations such services are not provided to rural customers. Traditionally rural subscribers were connected to a small analog telephone office which could only provide minimal telephone service with no custom call features. To provide full feature telephone service to rural subscribers, such small analog office would have to provide a foreign exchange (FX) trunk to a full feature telephone office.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide rural telephone subscribers with full feature class 5 telephone service at an economical cost. An additional feature of the present invention is automatic maintenance of the satellite office.